If "Viva Villa" (1934) was the blueprint for the "fun" Zapata Western, then the same could be said that "Viva Zapata" was the outline of the serious Zapata Western. So in these two films we have a ying/yang treatment of the MexRev.

This film is not played for any type of humor, its serious drama throughout and more indepthly character driven than the more lighthearted romp Viva Villa. You could almost sight the similar difference between GBU & OUTITW both epics but very different in tone. Both films take place during the similar time period of the MexRev during the overthrow of Diaz. While Viva Villa takes place in the north in Sonora, Viva Zapata is set in Morelos. Both films have very similar plots.

A group of peons have an audience with Diaz and explain that their corn fields have been fenced off from them and planted with cane. They have their deeds with them, Diaz says they must find their boundary stones they say they cannot access the land to find them because they will be arrested. One of the more outspoken peons is Zapata who realizes that Diaz won't help them, so he leads an issurection with his more fiery and slightly out of control brother played by Anthony Quinn. The battle scenes are well done. There is an attack on a train sequence where they load a flatcar with explosives and let bit roll into an approaching supply train. The general cinematography is good its B&W but you wish this film was shot in color. Again its far more serious than most Spaghetti Zapatas (which tend to lean towards characters that are caricatures), this film treats all subjects and relationships equally in manner, and again its dialogue driven rather than style driven.

Brando plays and looks like convincing peon, Anthony Quinn is also fantastic and even more convincing as Efumio Zapata his brother, Wiseman plays a newspaper man/political agitator who loyalty is mercurial, towards the end of the film he comes off as some kind of behind the scenes trator/manipulator. Jean Peters plays Zapata's love interest and eventual wife.

John McCain is a fan! Here he is in a recent interview about his pop culture tastes:

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We read somewhere that Viva Zapata! is your favorite movie of all time...Elia Kazan made three movies with Marlon Brando. One was A Streetcar Named Desire, one was On the Waterfront, and the third was Viva Zapata! Many people think Brando's performances in Streetcar and Waterfront were his best. I think Zapata! was his best. I'm in the minority about this. But go back and watch the scene of his wedding night, with [Brando] and Jean Peters — the actress who later married Howard Hughes, who made her give up acting — when she teaches him to read by taking out the Bible and reading it with him. That's a poignant scene.

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That's what you get, Drink, for not appreciating the genius of When You Read This Letter.

A psychological Cavalry film/Zapata Western, basically Coop plays a Major Thorn who at Villa's attack on Columbus NM was stricken by fear and hid out in a culvert under the railway. His commanding officer a friend of his father, spares him and recommends him for non combat duty that consists of citing soldiers for bravery for the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Near the end of Pershings Punnative Expedition against Pancho Villa, at battle at Ojos Azules Hacienda, which was the last mounted line charge against an enemy in the history of the United States Cavalry, Cooper's character Maj. Thomas Thorn cites 5 men for the medal. Coop has a personal interest in this because he himself wonders what it takes to be courageous, so he in turn asks each of his cited soldiers what they felt during the battle and what made them courageous.

The Commander who lead the charge Robert Keith, Col. Rogers, was expecting to also be cited by Thorn, (so that he could receive his generals star) but he's not and he bitterly sends Thorn with 6 men (one man cited for the medal from a previous skirmish) back to the army's rail head base in Cordura, Chihuahua, Mexico, the army wanted live heroes, and wanted to keep them out of combat until they were awarded the medals. The previously cited soldier was killed before Congress got around to awarding his medal.

Included in this detail is Adelaide Geary (Rita Hayworth) an American woman prisoner, the hacienda's owner, who Col. Rogers accuses of aiding the Villistas. In fact she had no choice with any of the Mexican warring factions and took all comers in. She is being sent home for trial. The confrontations with the bandits the woman, and increasingly, with each other, is the core of this adventure across a burning desert for six days back to Cordura. The very harsh circumstances reveal all five cited "heroes" to be at times pathetic, corrupt, hypocritical, cowardly, and degenerate, while Col Thorn and Adelaide Geary are shown to display an entirely different definition of courage.

Again the cavalry attack was well done and its the first I've ever seen with the US Cavalry in khaki. The CinemaScope scenery is gorgeous and upon a second viewing I knew what to expect, so I knew it wasn't going to have any of the "romance of the sombrero" of your typical Zapata Westerns and I could concentrate more on the interaction of the characters.

This is one film that tackles a difficult subject matter in an adult manner and deserves multiple viewings. It won't be everyone's cup of tea.

« Last Edit: March 29, 2010, 03:30:24 AM by cigar joe »

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"When you feel that rope tighten on your neck you can feel the devil bite your ass"!

A trio of Mexican Zapata Westerns were on last night on TCM, (for the 100 anniversary of the MexRev according to Osborn) they were interesting, I was finally seeing the Mexican take on the Revolution, they were all in Spanish with English subtitles and all starred Pedro Armendariz and were directed by Ismael Rodríquez.

Nice concept initially with the disembodied head of Pancho Villa narrating his life so its basically vignettes of Pancho Villas life. However I found all the films way way to talkie, too much talking heads, to many crowd scenes, and not enough Mexican scenery and the music was pretty pedestrian, you'd think at least they would have used more of the songs that popularized the revolution, but no just bland laborious orchestral pieces. The films got a bit better from first to last with the last (the last one was the only one that had a machine gun, lol, providing a bit more of the feel of a typical Zapata).

Its probably a cultural thing on what was emphasized in this trio of films and they may have been very popular in Mexico but there is not enough of the artistry and a noticeable lack of the political themes (perhaps still a touchy & taboo subject in Mexico) we have come to expect from the genre.

Así era Pancho Villa (1957)

The disembodied head of Mexico's best-known rebel Poncho Villa narrates several short stories from his own life. Cast Pedro Armendáriz as Pancho Villa, María Elena Marqués as Jesusita de Chihuahua, and Carlos López Moctezuma as Fierro. Dir: Ismael Rodríquez.

Stories of the life of Pancho Villa are recounted by teachers, prisoners, farm hands and other small town residents.Cast: Pedro Armendáriz, Elsa Aquirre, Carlos López Moctezuma. Dir: Ismael Rodríquez. C-92 mins

« Last Edit: September 04, 2010, 12:40:23 PM by cigar joe »

Logged

"When you feel that rope tighten on your neck you can feel the devil bite your ass"!

A trio of Mexican Zapata Westerns were on last night on TCM, (for the 100 anniversary of the MexRev according to Osborn) they were interesting, I was finally seeing the Mexican take on the Revolution, they were all in Spanish with English subtitles and all starred Pedro Armendariz and were directed by Ismael Rodríquez.

I actually happened to chance upon "The Treasure Of Pancho Villa" this morning on TCM with Rory Calhoun, Shelley Winters, and Gilbert Roland, caught a small piece of it at the end with Calhoun & Roland building a machine gun nest out of sacks of gold holding off a Mexican Army, it had some nice touches every tiime a bullet it a sack gold coins would spill out.

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"When you feel that rope tighten on your neck you can feel the devil bite your ass"!